What is up my G?!?
Just kidding - I’m British, I never talk like that. Tally ho! Happy Sunday.
I took the new Sigma 35mm f/1.2 aka DARK HELMET out with me to a fantastic mother-and-son shoot at Valley Forge this morning, and I am absolutely in love with it.
It is just beautiful. The colours, the smooth fade-off, the creamy creamy background like Devon Custard. SO GOOD.
All of which is totally useless, of course, if you can’t nail accurate focus with it. I had the Siggy 35 1.4 about a year ago and while that was a fine lens optically, if you tried to get a moving target it auto-focused worse than a cyclops with an eyepatch.
Does the brand new 1.2 version have the same issue?
That would be a definite ‘no problemo’. Focusing on a child’s eyeball is challenge for any auto-focus system, but the Sigma 1.2 handles Sony’s Eye AF algorithms with aplomb. I feel totally confident going forward with this lens, which is impressive when you consider the physical volume of glass inside it that the motors are shunting around!
Also, every image in this blog post is taken at f/1.2, which makes the focus accuracy and sharpness even more remarkable. It’s just a freaking amazing lens.
But wait.
Isn’t it so horrifyingly gigantic that you’ll rip your arm off just picking it up? You could be forgiven for thinking that, with all the fuss made every time Sigma release a lens of any kind - they apparently care not one bit about size and weight, just going for all-out optical mastery.
However. It is my solemn duty to inform you that, while undeniably chunky, if this lens actually causes you pain or excessive fatigue you are either:
very, very old
an infant
afflicted with a dreadful illness
in dire need of a gym membership
It’s just a lens, folks. It’s not a grand piano. Don’t be frail.
Also my custom red shutter button is SLICK and you know it.
SO AWESOME. First, Jillian and Jupiter are an amazing pair and so fun and natural to shoot. Second, look at those blues! I’m not a lens engineer and I don’t pretend to know how different lenses give you different colours, but they do, and the Sigma 1.2 is just gorgeous.
So
Let me harp on about 35mm primes in general for a second. There’s just something about the 35mm focal length that clicks with my brain perfectly. I had the 24mm Sony G Master for a stretch but that was just too wide and I struggled to get compositions with it. I love my 85 but that’s too close for a lot of situations. 35 is just bang on, a little wider than normal human vision (which is somewhere around 45-55mm depending on who you ask) but not so much it distorts your subject.
It just gets out of your way and lets you focus on creating some beautiful, heart-squeezing, tear-jerking art.
Love it love it love it. As a transatlantic ocean-crosser whose own mother is 3,500 miles away, working on these really hit me in the heartstrings. You can see the fierce devotion and love in every expression.
“Simplify, simplify.”
On the surface this is a post about the Sigma 35 1.2, but it’s really about the work you can create when you have high quality gear that does exactly what it should - shows up, works even better than advertised, and lets you do your thing without impediment.